This invention relates to a medium feeding apparatus having a medium placing portion, and relates to an image forming apparatus having the medium feeding apparatus and forming an image on a recording medium.
In a conventional sheet supply tray or sheet ejection tray, an openable main tray is provided on a side, front or rear surface of a main body of an image forming apparatus, and a plurality of slidable or foldable auxiliary trays are provided on the main tray. The main tray is configured to have a length corresponding to a regular sized recording medium of a standard length. The auxiliary tray is configured to have a standard length when the auxiliary tray is drawn from the main tray.
Recently, in accordance with the downsizing of the medium feeding apparatus, the shape of the tray tends to be determined to avoid interference with a protrusion such as an operation panel and a locking member for a cover. Therefore, when the folded auxiliary tray is opened, an opening may be formed on an engaging portion between the main tray and the auxiliary tray, or a step or a gap may be formed on a connecting portion between the main tray and the auxiliary tray. In such a case, during the setting of the recording sheets on the tray, the recording sheet may be caught in the opening, step or gap, so that the bending, buckling or breakage of the recording sheet may occur. In order to avoid this problem, it is necessary to set the recording sheets with the greatest care, and therefore the handling of the recording sheets is not easy.